Simple Plan – Interview [2004]

Hands up, who’s sick of debating what is or isn’t “punk”? If you’re reading this, chances are you’ve already made up your mind about Simple Plan. But maybe it’s time to forget what you know, because Simple Plan couldn’t care less about people’s opinions of them. Simple Plan have spent the last year channeling their energy, positivity and, yes, sometimes frustration, into their music. And no matter how you want to label their music, the 11 songs on the band’s highley anticipated second album, Still Not Getting Any… proves that SP are not a punk band, a pop band, a rock band or whatever label you can come up with… they are just a great band… a band that strives to write great songs and put on a hell of a show!

Find out more as we interview Sebastien Lefebvre!

How is it doing the smaller shows because I know you charted high so a lot of people must be trying to get in?

It’s really cool, but we do bigger radio shows around Christmas with 30,000 people and then these club tours with 1,000 people.

The radio shows have to be fun since there are so many different people.

We did a radio show last year with Beyonce, P. Diddy, and Ja Rule.

Was it cool?

It was awesome. The cool thing about those shows is that the fans are people who listen to the radio and they are into all different artists. It’s very interesting because there are a lot of people.

I was on Amazon and read some of the fans reviews, and there is a ton; I wonder what is it like to have so many kids that are dying to get the album? Most can’t wait for the album and are at the record store the minute it opens.

I know. Some stores open at midnight so you can go and get new releases. That is what happened for our record. It’s really awesome.

I remember doing that with Nirvana’s In Utero. Would you have done that with a record of someone you like?

Well right now we are lucky enough to get them ahead of time since we are in the record industry.

But you are still huge music fans.

Oh yeah. We went to the Green Day show for their album release thing in New York and we were way in the back trying to get to the front. It was awesome.

When you meet bands is it odd when you look up to them?

Yeah.

To me bands like Kiss was not real when I was a kid growing up—like they were larger than life.

You know that just happened to me and I never thought it would. We were on TRL the other day and met Tom Hanks and we were like “can we get a picture with you Mr. Hanks” and he said “yeah, sure.” And he said his kids were fans and that he heard of us before. And we told him to come to the show and he said he’d come and hang out. And we were so excited. We have kids who come to our show and get excited to meet us and they scream. But they don’t have to—they can come and talk to me.

People do ask me what its like to do these interviews—and I say “well they are regular guys—they are human.” I don’t think kids realize you are human.

Yes, we are human. (We both laugh)

Was there a lot of pressure on the making of this record?

A lot of the pressure came from ourselves. The first record did good and we wanted to make a better record. We wanted a record we could tour three years on and have songs we’d always want to play. Sonically the first was produced and polished and people thought we sounded better live so the second record we recorded live with Bob Rock and it sounds great. I think its closer to what Simple Plan is than the first one.

The first record had a slow build on the radio that got bigger and bigger—it had to be exciting.

When you put out a record you can hope it sells millions but we had different ideas when we started. We just wanted to put out a record that would allow us to make another record. And then after a while we sold more and more records and it was so gradual and we never recognized it. Someone asked us what it was like to be famous and we said “we’re not famous. We’re just guys hanging out making music together.”

Usually labels don’t allow for the slow build but Lava helped build that gradually.

It was great most labels would have never worked like that.

Most would have dumped you if you didn’t have a hit right out of the box.

I know.

Did you pick Lava out of other labels? How did you get signed to them?

Actually they turned us down twice before they signed us.

Really?

Yeah. We sent them a demo and they asked for another and said they liked the first one better. Then they came and saw us live and they didn’t know still and then finally they signed us but even before other labels paid attention. They believed in us and it was great. They are small and they can focus on us because they don’t have something else coming out next week so they are really behind us.

Some bands disappear in a month if they don’t sell well. It’s not really smart business. How do record labels know if they have a Radiohead or not if you don’t let them blossom.

Exactly, some bands can sell a lot of records and not be on the radio.

Okay, so the name of the record is “Still Not Getting Any”—I mean come on, you are in a rock band–

(Laughs) if your mind is so in the gutter that you have to think that is what it means. (We both laugh) Maybe it means “Still Not Getting Any Respect.”

That is true. I guess my mind is in the gutter. (We both laugh)

Maybe it stood for “Still Not Getting Any Better.” It’s the name that keeps on giving. (We both laugh)

That is true. You got me. I have nothing to say. (We both laugh)

It’s a more mature album, but we are still guys and we want to say we are regular guys. The respect thing is a big one because we are a band that people love to hate and criticize. Everyone said we wouldn’t be around anymore and we don’t care what they say.

Does it bug you when you get criticized?

It’s just so dumb because sometimes you read a review and you know they didn’t listen to the record. One critic said that we complain about being rich and famous and it sucked but we wrote that about the fans. They didn’t listen to the record. Say you don’t like it and it sucks, but don’t make shit up.

True. Well people didn’t like Nirvana’s Nevermind.

Exactly.

So how is time on the bus driving around the country?

It’s great.

Is it fun, for real?

Yeah, I love it. I got my video games so it’s cool. You go to sleep in one place and wake up in another.

I like traveling a few times a year and make a road trip, but that’s not driving for months on end. I don’t think anyone can understand it unless they’ve actually done it.

Yeah. The bus is good. I enjoy it a lot. It is home.

What games do you play?

I brought all my Playstation games but there wasn’t a Playstation on the bus.

That sucks.

Yeah. So I play my Gameboy and watch Family Guy and Futurama.

(The interview continued on about FIFA Soccer on the PS2 and Madden football only to end on my being jealous of their plans to travel to Brazil and Australia).

+ Charlie Craine